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Senior Vice President
Public Entity Zone Practice Leader
Marsh
Detroit

One of Daniel Cullen's clients, a risk manager for a major U.S. metropolitan area, clearly recalls when he had only two weeks to purchase special liability insurance to cover polling places where Iraqi expats could vote in Iraq's January 2005 elections.

"It was a federal mandate that we provide locations for voting and get special insurance to protect the voters," says the risk manager.

The client's coverage area was home to a large Iraqi population. So he turned to his broker, Cullen, for his expertise.

Working with the Department of Homeland Security, "we were told about the setup just before the election started," the client says. So Cullen lined up coverage for $1 million per occurrence, $2 million aggregate and with a $5,000 deductible per occurrence. The coverage was for Jan. 18 through Jan. 31, and the premium was $50,000, which was covered by the Homeland Security Department.

Fortunately, there were no claims. When he's not lining up "hush-hush" liability coverage, Cullen is also credited by this risk manager with handling the locality's overall insurance coverage in an innovative manner. Most recently, he developed a new model for their workers' compensation medical coverage that helps get people back to work more quickly.

Vice President
Southeast Regional Manager Managing
Director
Arthur J. Gallagher
Boca Raton, Fla.

If there's a catastrophic exposure lurking out there somewhere in the Southeastern United States, the odds are that David Marcus, managing director of the public entity and scholastic division, has handled it. Marcus has spent much of his time over the past few years dealing with the property/windstorm insurance issues facing the public sector in Florida and in other catastrophe-exposed areas throughout the country.

"By far the biggest challenge we have faced together is the catastrophic property insurance market, which we have faced for the 14 years following Hurricane Andrew," says a Florida school-district client. The Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, coupled with active hurricane seasons, have made property-catastrophe insurance almost impossible to get at any price in the Gulf region. However, Marcus "has spearheaded the marketing of the district's property insurance program so that it remains a viable program even in these difficult times," the client says.

In addition, Marcus worked on "a complete overhaul of the district's liability insurance program, which has saved the taxpayers millions of dollars, as well as working through a $100 million property insurance claim, which stemmed from Hurricane Andrew in 1992," the client says.

Area Senior Vice President
Regional Director
Arthur J. Gallagher
Aliso Viejo, Calif.

As one risk manager puts it, "John gets it."

Thanks to his relationship-building skills, John Chino has been able to institute a number of long-term programs for his clients. For example, two years ago, the regional director for the public-entity and scholastic division shepherded a captive insurance program for a public agency that serves the insurance and risk management needs of community of schools in the Los Angeles area. With Chino's help, the agency placed its owner-controlled insurance program loss fund in the captive, as well as some of the organization's other exposures, such as workers' compensation and some aspects of its health benefits program.

As explained by the client's deputy CEO, "The board's broad vision was engendered by John's vision, transmitted to both staff and our governing body."

Chino also instituted two new programs for insuring the activities of ancillary school support groups and the use of school facilities by developing programs with annual policies that make the client the master policyholder.

"This makes unnecessary the individual underwriting, for example, of multiple booster club activities throughout the year or the creation of a special insurance policy each time an auditorium is used," says the deputy CEO.

Managing Director
Religious and Nonprofit Practice Group
Arthur J. Gallagher
Itasca, Ill.

Peter Persuitti could give any religious leader a run for his money when it comes to understanding the theology of the particular denomination. "He has a broad understanding of the needs of the church sector," says one religious captive client. A broker with advanced degrees in Greek and Latin, Persuitti has made it his business to understand a denomination thoroughly from its need for alternative risk products to its unique exposures.

"Peter helps a denomination explore all the alternative platforms if they want to retain some of their own risk because he has experience in excess reinsurance," says the client. "He does it in a way that is consistent with that denomination's theology of vision of the ministry. And not everyone can do that."

Each denomination--Catholic, Baptist and Methodist--is structured differently. Catholic parishes answer to a higher authority (structural); Baptist congregations are independent from a higher authority (congregational); and Methodist is what Persuitti's client calls "connectional," which is a hybrid. Consequently, each denomination requires unique risk products. "Certain forms of the alternative market that might work better for one structure may not work for another," the client explains. "A broker has to understand what platform is appropriate." And, pray tell, that's what Persuitti does.

Area Senior Vice President
Co-Managing Director
Arthur J. Gallagher
Orlando, Fla.

After 16 years of providing affordable and stable liability coverages to members, one Middle America public-entity risk management fund was in a dilemma as limited availability and increasing costs began to affect its members in 2002.

This fund, one of the largest public-entity pools in the country, needed to add property coverage to its liability pool. The major challenge--they had minimal data on where their members had placed their property insurance. Richard Terlecki had no loss history, no values and no addresses. He couldn't even tell the marketplace who the first member of the pool would be and when they would join.

"Rich's 20 years of experience with other public entity-pools and accounts was tested by (our) unique statutory creation and operations, nonmarketing policy, affiliation with independent agents and need to contract all administrative services for the program," says the fund's executive director.

If Terleki had researched and collected the typical underwriting data, that would have delayed the placement by at least two years. But the co-managing director for the public-entity pooling niche did find coverage for this client, and the program was launched in July 2003. Initially, only one member joined, but by the end of 2006, 307 more had jumped on board.

Managing Director
Public Sector Practice Leader
JBL&K Risk Services
Beecher Carlson
Portland, Ore.

To paraphrase, one brokerage firm's scandal is another firm's gain. Sometimes the gain is unprecedented, as was the case for Ronald Graybeal, the managing director of the public sector practice for JBL&K.

When a fall 2004 audit revealed that the Portland office of a major brokerage firm had been secretly charging its clients a commission along with its brokerage fee, "(JBL&K) ran the table and provided lots of help to the public entities," says the risk manager of a large Northwest public school district. Ultimately, the major brokerage firm said its Portland office had overcharged six Oregon school districts and one community college by $1.2 million. Graybeal stepped in and picked up the business for several school districts and other public entities, plus the resurrection of a purchasing pool that the major brokerage firm had caused to go insolvent.

The property/casualty purchasing pool included "virtually every small school district and special district in Portland," the risk manager says. As for his own district, when the renewal came up in July, "we got new carriers and he put the muscle on our incumbent, and we got some huge benefits." Indeed, Graybeal saved the district 15 percent on its premium and installed a retro program for its losses that has already netted the district $50,000. "He did a very nice job with a very difficult situation," says the risk manager.